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Story: Rural mythologies

‘Good-bye to the old hut’

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‘Good-bye to the old hut’

Laurence Kennaway came to Canterbury with his brother in 1851, and three years later took up land at Alford, in the forks of the Ashburton River. Pioneering in the Canterbury back country was tough, and rather different from the pastoral life he had imagined. After returning to England, Kennaway wrote and illustrated a book, Crusts, which described the realities of that frontier life. This illustration from the book depicts the brothers losing their first hut in a fire.

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Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Reference: Laurence J. Kennaway, Crusts: a settler's fare due south. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Low & Searle, 1874.

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How to cite this page

Jock Phillips, Rural mythologies – Colonial myth making, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/artwork/20308/good-bye-to-the-old-hut (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Jock Phillips, published 1 March 2009.